well, as we get close to the top of the hour, give you a look at some of the stories making news across the country. starting in witchta, where this must be the best lemonade on the planet, or maybe this kansas businessman has some deep pockets. he paid $10,000 for a single glass of lemonade from some students. they were actually trying to raise money for tornado relief in joplin, missouri. they have actually raised more than $13,000 so far. turn to michigan now, where, look at this. this is the one that almost got away. but it didn't. this took more than a half hour to reel in. that's a catfish. the guy who caught it plans to have it officially measured and weighed and see if this thing officially breaks any records. also, are you in the market for a new car? here's one that's an option for you. you've probably never seen

anything quite like this. let me explain what you are looking at. that's a plexiglass pontiac. it was built for the 1939 new york world's fair. it's being auctioned today and expected to sell for about $275,000. and from the cnn center in atlanta, georgia, this is your cnn saturday morning. glad you could spend some time here with us. i'm t.j. holmes. well, you know the story by now. the world's biggest economy is on the brink of possible default. we are all watching and waiting as the fight over the nation's debt ceiling just drags on and on and on. congress has just under three days left to come up with a deal. we are live in washington to find out where things stand. and yes, they are in session this weekend. also, in this tough economy, would you believe that things are actually getting cheaper? not all things, though, specific things. and we will read them off for

you this morning. but first, we need to go right back to capitol hill. both houses of congress are in session this weekend. both parties are scrambling to pass some kind of a debt limit plan. our joe johns is there for us. joe, good morning to you. this is about to get started here in about an hour. >> reporter: that's for sure. and there's also a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, we think. we don't know of any meetings between members of congress, say, or senators right now. but a lot of this stuff goes under the staff level, particularly on the weekend. so we'll see. there's also a lot of discussion about what kind of bill that includes deficit reduction and raising the debt ceiling that the congress would actually let go through. i talked just a little while ago with congressman barney frank, who is the top democrat on the house financial services committee. and he gave me an idea of what he believes needs to be in any bill that could get support from both democrats and republicans this weekend. listen up.

>> significant reductions going forward, not immediate, in domestic and military spending, deferring the tax issue for when the bush tax cuts expire, so we can fight over that top 2%, and not cutting medicare and social security benefits, including in my point, further taxation of the upper income social security and medicare benefits. i think that's a package that could pass. >> reporter: now, what barney frank does not think will pass the house is the bill that passed the house last night. that, of course, is the bill that was put forward by the speaker of the house, john boehner. boehner said he did everything he could and he really stuck his neck out. listen to him. >> and to the american people i would say, we've tried our level best. we've done everything we can to find a common sense solution that could pass both houses of congress and end this crisis.

>> reporter: so a lot of opinions out there. and i'm sure we'll be hearing more today, as these votes continue in the senate and the house. back to you, t.j. >> all right. joe johns, we'll be checking in with you again. thank you so much. meanwhile, this debt ceiling debate stirring a lot of reaction on facebook, twitter, other social networking sites, and president obama used his re-election twitter account to try to turn up the heat on republicans. well, after his tweets went out, he lost more than 30,000 followers. that's according to the website twittercounter. there's no way to know if the political leanings of those folks who dropped the president. now, even though he lost, the estimate is around 33,000 followers on twitter, the president is going to be okay, because he has some 9 million plus followers on twitter. with so much at stake, how did we get down to the wire like this? i talked to a democratic strategist, maria cardona, as well as republican strategist, lenny mcallister, a little earlier about what affect the tea party may be having on this whole debate.

do you see that the tea party, in your opinion, is not giving at all, and that's the holdup? >> there are some that are not giving. i'm not going to say everybody in that caucus, but there are definitely some that have been inflexible. the bottom line is, we didn't get here overnight and we're going to have to progress our way past and through this. there were some that said that the republicans had a big win, they should have taken advantage of it this time last week and got us past this crisis. >> well, maria, that some he may speak of, some could be one, two, three, four, or five, but those some seem pretty powerful right now. >> well, that's exactly the point, t.j. and i wrote a piece on cnn.com about this, it's called the tyranny of 87. which is, when you put that much power in the hands of a very small group of people, especially people who have never governed before, have no interest in compromising, and are so inflexible and it's either their way or the highway, the american people at the end of the day are the ones who are going to get hurt. because a couple things may

happen. if we go into default or if our credit rating is lowered to aa, which the tea partyers don't think is a big deal, there will be a huge tax increase on every single american in this country in the way of increased interest rates. so for a group of people who are just adamantly against tax increases, this is not something that they understand. and that is something that the gop is going to continue to have a problem with. >> all right. so exactly what is it going to take to find a solution? wolf blitzer and don lemon are breaking this all down for you, the hurdles, the options. you can check out "get it done: countdown to crisis" coming your way sunday night, 9:00 eastern, right here on cnn. and some other news now at six minutes past the hour. "new york post" employees have been ordered to, quote, preserve and maintain documents related to possible phone hacking or bribery of public officials. parent company news corp. has been bogged down in a phone-hacking and bribery scandal in great britain. cnn obtained a copy of the "new

york post" memos circulated yesterday, which suggest the scandal may be a concern in the u.s. as well. warren jeffs acting as his own attorney, causing a commotion in court. during testimony yesterday, he interrupted witnesses for the prosecution, saying god will bring sickness and death against people who prosecute his church. the polygamous sect leader is being tried on two counts of sexual assault of a child. you can hear what our legal guys have to say about this case next hour. and there's a lot of disappointment in texas after what was supposed to be tropical storm don made landfall. it came ashore as a tropical depression, but it wasn't the rainmaker folks were hoping for. cnn's rob marciano is in corpus christi for us. >> reporter: well, here we are. the morning after the landfall of tropical storm don and it's been a huge bust and disappointment all the way around. i've never been involved with a

tropical cyclone where so many people onshore were cheering for it to gain strength, get together, and bring a lot of rain with it. and don did anything but that. right now we have -- well, the sun's coming up, it's a beautiful day. the surf is still high, onshore winds and coastal flood advisory is the only thing that's still active as far as advisories go. you know, in the tv business, when a tropical system makes landfall overnight and we're not live with it, we like to give what's called a ticktock, which means take slices of the evening and show you how it came ashore. and embarrassingly, this is what we came up with. check out the pocket radar here. this storm is dead. radar, empty. rain, nonexistent. well, there was dry air out ahead of this system, some wind shear, dry air over texas as well, and this thing completely evaporated when it hit the coastline. ironically, a lot of farmers have switched their crop to cotton this year because it's drought resistant and now the cotton's coming into harvest, and the farmers don't want the

rain right now, because they want to harvest that cotton. so they'll take some later in the season. but a little slice of good news there. but elsewhere in texas, rainfall deficits well over a foot in many locales and this storm did not help. rob marciano, cnn, corpus christi, texas. at nine minutes past the hour, let me say good morning to re reynolds wolf. an odd story. weird to say, too bad that storm went away. >> we had all these storms that hit the texas coastline and the reaction was just the opposite. people were hoping that the storm would divert and go a different direction. this situation, they were hoping for the storm to actually intensify, and maybe not bring heavy wind, but definitely need some ample rainfall because of, of course, the ample drought. unfortunately, that system is gone. but there is another one that's developing right now in the atlantic. this one, this area you see shaded in this reddish box, that is possibly emily. emily might be the name of this storm. we go from "d" to "e," emily

would be the next. the national hurricane center giving this a 70% chance of development. we'll watch this. this is what happened with don, just yesterday, looked very promising, came onshore and fizzled out altogether. a few embedded storms developing towards the big bend, but certainly not the major rain event people were hoping for. rain may pick up across parts of the northern plains and into the arrowhead of minnesota by late midafternoon. we get this front moving across the u.s./canadian border. that by late afternoon may give us strong thunderstorms. we'll talk more about that coming up. t.j., let's pitch it back to you. >> reynolds, appreciate you, buddy. see you again shortly. ten minutes past the hour now. there's yet another royal wedding in the uk that's happening today? but donate expect a lot of pomp and circumstance here, because the person getting married is the 13th in line to the throne. stay with me. why? -why? [ female announcer ] we all age differently. roc® multi-correxion 4 zone moisturizer

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all right. 12 minutes past the hour now. i'll give you a look at some of the stories mistaking international headlines. the suspect in norway's deadly bombing and shooting rampage told police he had plans to attack other targets, but investigators aren't revealing what those targets were. ♪ meanwhile, there have been dozens of memorial services to remember the 77 victims of last week's terror attacks. several are going to be held in the coming days as well, and the first service was held in oslo yesterday and was organized by the youth movement of the labor party. also, some severe flooding in south korea is doing more than destroying homes, damaging crops and claiming dozens of

lives. military officials say the high waters are washing buried land mines from north korea across the border. soldiers with metal detectors have been called in to search for these explosives. also, dna evidence is the focus of testimony today in the appeal for american college student amanda knox. court-appointed experts say they have serious doubts about the evidence used to convict knox of killing her british roommate. the police are defending accusations that they bungled the evidence. also, queen elizabeth's oldest granddaughter is getting married in scotland today. her name is zarah phillips. she's saying the "i dos" to her rugby player, mike tindall is his name. the 30-year-old phillips is actually the 13th in line to the throne. well, despite the bad economy, the price for a lot of products are reaching all-time highs. you'd like to have a break, would you? well, yes, there are actually

items that are getting cheaper. if you're in the market for a new car, volkswagen has lowered its prices. also, maybe you're not in the market for this, but if you're thinking about it, solar panels, a good time to get those. they've dropped some 15%. and also, netflix has dropped the price of its one dvd at a time service by $2. but that's not all. clyde anderson, our financial analyst, has been doing some digging. we've got seven more things to tell you about right after the break that are getting cheaper. 15 past the hour. stay with me. st occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. oh, we call it the bundler.

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well, at 17 minutes past the hour now, americans starting to maybe get numb to rising prices, whether that's for gas, for food, or maybe just for that cup of coffee you had this morning. there are some things, though, that you can buy right now that are actually getting cheaper. i talked to our financial analyst, clyde anderson, about this. he told me about seven things that are actually getting less expensive. >> some of the things are in demand, some of the things aren't in demand right now. so one of the things we talked about, ikea is actually reducing some of their prices. >> stuff already pretty cheap. >> still pretty cheap -- >> i shouldn't say cheap, should i? >> affordable. and that's the trend right now. that's what they do and that's the market they're tapping into, because people are staying in their homes longer, so they want to remodel. >> they want nice stuff in their homes. this is a no-brainer, but real estate. >> we've watched it come down in several markets, so we always say real estate is local, but it depends on your market. but you can save $50,000

compared to a couple of years ago on some properties. i always say, america's on sale right now. so you need to tap into it. >> number three, the amazon kindle. we see the commercials for these all the time. they're getting cheaper and cheaper. >> when it first came out in 2011, it came out at $399. you can buy one now for $114. it's really affordable. technology is constantly changing and those prices are coming down. and that's becoming more popular. so they don't have to charge as much as they did. >> does that appeal to a lot of people who don't want to go spend $700, 800 bucks on an ipad? >> actually. the next big thing is the 3-d television. and it hasn't taken off. >> right. so that's come down about $400 in price. everyone thought it was going to boom and taken off, but it hasn't taken off as quickly as they would have liked it too. >> explain this one to me, the

prepaid debit cards. >> a lot of people have challenged credit. so people are unbanked or underbanked, or they just don't trust banks or they don't bank. but you still want to be able to buy things online or over the phone, so you need that visa or mastercard logo. american express even launched a new one. you load money on to the card and take it and use it as a debit card. they charge you generally a monthly fee and a lot of these companies are reducing their monthly fee and their reload fee. if you add more money, they charge you a reload fee and a monthly maintenance fee. >> how exorbitant are these fees? >> sometimes talking about $3 a month, and then to load it, about $3. every time you want to put money on there. it just depends. you're seeing some of those slash it and not even have that monthly fee just to get customers. >> last two here, these are bigger items, but pools. swimming pools. >> yeah, definitely. a lot of people aren't going for the swimming pools anymore. we aren't seeing that, as

popular as it has been. so they've cut them almost 75% for a swimming pool. now, imagine that. this may be the time for you to go and look into getting a swimming pool. >> thank you, clyde. >> that's a huge discount. >> okay. last one here, and we're kind of off the reservation with this one, but space flight. >> space flight, who knew? we're at the point now, when this first was introduced, a lot of people thought it was far-fetched, that you could go into space, travel into orbit, they were talking about almost $200,000 plus to do it. to go out there, go into orbit, and now they're talking about $100,000 that you'll be able to go into space for 100 grand. a lot of people are already signing up to get their seats on these flights. so we see what happened with the kindle over the last couple of years, maybe the same thing will happen with the space flights. >> space flight, book your seats now. well, what would you say if i told you walmart was about to expand. you might wonder, how could this giant get any bigger?

well, they could be about to change the way you watch movies at home. those details next. it's 21 past the hour. stay with me on this cnn saturday morning blp. roc® multi-correxion 4 zone moisturizer with roc®retinol and antioxidants. lines, wrinkles, and sun damage will fade. roc multi-correxion. correct what ages you.

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>> what you're talking about is going on to walmart's site to be able to actually download the movie right then and there, so that you could watch it, you could stream that movie and watch it from your computer, from your laptop, you know, right in your own house. >> okay, you need anything special here? special equipment? you need a certain type of, you know -- i'll let you get into the technical speech about how much speed you need on your computer and all that to be able to download these, but other than that, you don't need much, do you? >> you don't need much of anything, absolutely not. all you need really is just a laptop or a computer, you need internet connectivity, obviously. the higher the bandwidth with on that connectivity, obviously, the better to be able to really stream those movies and be able to not have what's called buffering and all that hiccupping that sometimes you experience on the web. but, no, other than that, man, you really don't need anything else. they're not charging a subscription fee for their service. they're saying you can do this per rental. you can do $3.99 for a standard definition. if you want the high definition one, it's going to be about five

to six bucks. >> bandwidth, i was going to say that, but i wanted you to have your moment there. bandwidth. >> you do know a few technical terms. >> tell us here, walmart, when you hear walmart is getting into the game, you better pay attention. >> absolutely. i don't want to call them mass consumerization, but once a product hits their shelves, it does hit mass consumers. i think this can be a game changer in that for a long time, we've seen other customers in this space. we've seen netflix, appletv, we've seen gaming consoles, hulu, and all these other ways that you can get content over the web, but now for it to go into walmart, that's going to raise the attention for a lot of people who are going to say, wait, i can to this? it's not that hard for me to do. and can i just stream these on my television instead of watching them on my computer, because that's what i would really like to do. netflix is a little bit more expensive, but it all depends on what your usage is like. for example, netflix also just

announced that they were going to have some price hikes. right now we're showing $7.99, but that may be changing. that may be going up to about 16 bucks. so we already know that there's a price hike that's happening. but it's unlimited rentals. so if you know that you're going to rent you know three or five movies in a month, maybe that is a good plan for you. it is a subscription-based plan, however, so you have to be aware of that. redbox, on the other hand, this is kiosks where you can go and pick up your dvd and you pay a buck for that. i do worry about that business and how they may be impacted by the convenience of someone like walmart stepping into this space, saying, hey, everybody, you can use your computers to watch movies right at home without leaving home. could you imagine someone naming their child cheeto? how about orangeluo or how about

je je je jermajesty. coming up in a bit, i talk to the author of a book who's telling you what you should and should not name your child. so i want to major in biology. miss gopie is the best teacher i ever had. she's amazing, i love her. [ jade ] i'm teaching jasmine ap biology. i knew she had the talent... i always pushed her. [ jasmine ] her class you literally have to think, like it takes so long to do her homework. [ jade ] she's gained the confidence that she can achieve anything. [ jasmine ] i'm going to be a pediatrician... and i'm going to make this dream come true. a 100 percent. ♪

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well, at the bottom of the hour on this cnn saturday morning, give you a look at some of the stories making headlines. american student amanda knox is back in an italian appeals court today, where a battle of dna evidence is going on. earlier this week, two court-appointed experts say crucial pieces of evidence used in her 2009 trial were mishandled. but today, a police forensic examiner denied that. knox is serving 26 years in prison for the murder of her british roommate, meredith kercher. well, family members and supporters of two american hikers detained in iran rallied outside the country's mission to the united nations today. they're calling for the release of josh fattal and sean bauer nearly two years after they were arrested by iranian forces. and the two men are scheduled to have a final hearing on

espionage charges tomorrow. meanwhile, bauer's fiancee, sarah shourd, you saw her in the video, was released in september of 2010 after 400 days in solitary confinement. and the army private who admits to bomb a restaurant popular with army soldiers is being held without bond. naser abdo is charged with possession of an unregistered destructive twice. he didn't help his case by refusing to stand when the judge entered the courtroom yesterday. abdo later shouted an apparent reference to the muslim charge charged with a deadly shooting spree of ft. hoot back in 2009. also in texas, they waited and they even prayed for a storm, but tropical storm don was a big washout. it fizzled before making landfall, arriving as a tropical depression and the rain it was supposed to bring just did not happen. parts of texas are in a severe drought and the rain could have helped out a whole lot.

turn now to washington, d.c. you have heard it for a while now, months, that time is running out. well, it really is right about now. they're trying to still make a debt deal. the leaders of both house and senate have floated their plans out there, but so far nothing has passed both houses. the president is pressuring lawmakers to get on the same page. cnn's athena jones at the white house for us. is the president doing that again today? he's been pressuring them in public statements and speeches and press conferences and even on twitter, but is he on the phone pressuring them as well? >> reporter: well, yes, tnl. he's been using the white house's bully pulpit. we saw him come out on wednesday night and put the pressure on congress. he did it on friday and again today, also. at the same time, despite the behind the scenes and in front of the camera stuff, behind the scenes, he's on the phone. other people in the white house are on the phone. a democratic official has told cnn that the president and vice president has been in touch with members on the hill in the last several days, trying to figure

out a way to reach a compromise. but he's keeping the pressure on in many ways and let's listen to what he had to say in this morning's weekly address about what would happen if congress fails to reach a deal. >> that would be inexcusable and entirely self-inflicted by washington. the power to solve this is in our hands. all that's needed is a simple vote, that democrat s and republicans have taken for decades. it was done 18 times under president reagan, seven times under george w. bush, and it must be done again now. >> reporter: now, the president also made a point of saying that this vote to raise the debt ceiling is not a vote that allows congress to spend more money. it's just a vote that allows the country to continue to pay the bills that are already coming due. bills that congress already racked up, t.j.. >> we saw so many meetings over the past several weeks. the president calling congressional leaders to the white house several times, but nothing like that at this point is planned for this weekend.

>> reporter: not so far. there's nothing on the schedule. you know, we've seen these meetings of people coming into the cabinet room. we see a quick spray, a video spray, everyone talking. but all those meetings were unsuccessful, ultimately. of course, people at the white house and people on the hill, if they decide that another white house meeting is going to be necessary to have some sort of breakthrough or compromise on this deal, then, of course that meeting will happen. but as of right now, there's nothing on the schedule yet, t.j. >> nothing on the schedule. so i hate to do this what-if thing, this what-if scenario. so what if we get to tuesday and there is no deal. does the president have any other options? >> reporter: well, certainly if there's no deal on tuesday, it's going to be uncharted terri eed in some way. you have the treasury department working with the federal reserve and the office of management and budget on plans for how they'd handle paying bills, deciding who gets paid, who gets their checks, how to pay down the debt or address the debt, pay debt

holders should we reach tuesday without a deal. but i'll tell you that the white house maintains that's not going to happen. as we get closer to tuesday, we'll probably get to hear more details about what the treasury is planning. but the president says these two parties are not that far apart. there's room for agreement. there are lots of different ways to resolve this problem, so let's get together and make it happen. we'll just have to see if that does happen, t.j.. >> athena jones, one of our newest members, i'll stop calling you that tomorrow, but making her cnn saturday morning debut. so good to see you. welcome aboard, athena. thanks so much. >> reporter: thanks. >> all right. so just what is going to have to happen to make this all get done? well, "get it done: countdown to a debt crisis" you can see that sunday night 9:00 eastern right here on cnn. and coming up this morning, we are having open tryouts for a new meteorologist here at cnn and our first applicant, you are seeing right there, what do you

think? you'll see more from fabio. when they taste the food that you cooked, it does something to your heart. i think what people like most about the grilled food is the taste. the flavor comes from that oak wood. the shrimp, the fresh fish, the steaks. it locks in the flavor, it seals in the juices so that when you put the fork in it, it just goes through it like butter. it's beautiful. [ laughs ] i'm proud to be a grill master. i love food. my name is charles himple. i'm a red lobster grill master, and i sea food differently. [ female announcer ] sweet honey taste. 80 calories per serving. 40% daily value of fiber. i'm here in the downtown area where the crowd is growing. [ female announcer ] watching calories at breakfast never tasted this sweet... i'll go get my bowl. [ female announcer ] ...or this huge. new fiber one 80 calories. yes, you can actually love breakfast.

39 minutes past the hour tonight. reynolds wolf makes it look easy

when he does the weather for you in the mornings. it's a job that a lot of people would like to have, because quite frankly, it looks fun, and it looks like something you have to have a good personality for. maybe you could be a meteorologist. well, not everyone can do it, can they, fabio? >> this is a live look at portland, oregon. it's very sunny today and it feels so nice on fabio's skin. thank you, sun. >> that's golden! how do you not like that? it's golden. >> it's absolutely fine. i mean i -- you know, he's got the guns, he's got the pastel shirt, he's got everything. the high cheekbones. i used to have hair like that. i did have hair like that. >> when -- i didn't know you that era. >> when i was a roady for the grateful dead, i did have hair like that. >> this is fabio having a little fun with one of the tv stations out in oregon. >> he does a good job. the guy looks fantastic. he's 52 years old. he looks fantastic.

i'm up with my fabio knowledge. i'm a fan, what can i tell you? great stuff. he had some easy weather to deal with in portland. weather's been kind of strange in other parts of the country, especially in texas. >> this thing is done, though? >> it's done, but we have other things beginning to pop up now. that's the big story we have. we have another system, a potential system. this one would not be don, we've gone from ds to es. the next one we'd be dealing with would be with possibly emily, emily right ow here in the atlantic. you can see the deep convection out there. about a 70% chance this could actually become a named storm. and if it does, well, it could veer off a bit more to the west-northwest, perhaps moving towards the leeward islands, wind ward with islands. it's still too early to say if it would affect the united states. it all bears watching, and this time of the year, that's exactly what we're going to do here at cnn, your hurricane headquarters. we're also the hurricane headquarters, of course, in the gulf. we're watching the situation there, what's left of don may bring a few spits and drizzles, but they were hoping for some really significant rainfall.

that will not be in the cards. heavy rain will be a possibility up in the northern plains and in the western great lakes due to this area of low pressure, this frontal boundary moving off towards the east. by late afternoon will be your best chance of storms. some of those maybe severe by the late afternoon. in terms of your temperatures, just incredibly intense. 91, the expected high in kansas city. 88, memphis. 87 in chicago. as warm as it has, still about 10 degrees shy from where it was about a week ago at this time. we were getting temperatures in the triple digits in spots like st. louis, and with the high humidity, t.j., it felt much warmer. but a little bit of relief this weekend thankfully for millions of people. >> there's something. renny, appreciate you, as always. about 18 minutes to the top of the hour. i showed you a few unusual baby names. here's another one, we're not making this up, but shannon sossamonopicked this name, audio

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well, about a quarter from the top of the hour now. we were looking at some unique, if you will, baby names before the break. let me show you a few more. and again, i have to tell you folks, we are not making these up. you see just a couple there. d dae' moni is one of them. espn is a popular name. congreatulashyla. and there's annish in there. there's a book "what yo nayme iz", many of these children end up going by initials or legally change their names. but it's the children that keep these names who may end up suffering even professionally. >> when the regret comes in is when they join the workforce or attempt to join the workforce. there's been a study back in 2003 of names where they did dummy resumes and used certain

names on one side, certain names on the other side, and it showed a drastic drop in the percentage of responses to the resume, drastic. to where it shows that there is a, maybe a bias that people don't even know that they have towards certain names. >> let me put up some more here. we were itching to share as many as we can. there's an orangejello and lemonjello. >> they're twin brothers. >> and reign beau. i thought that was pretty creative. there's a cheeto in there as well. give me a couple you have come across. we're sharing some here, but some that just blew your minds. your favorites? >> my favorite isn't because it's so differently, but because it's differently spelled. the name, quincy. >> how would you spell that. >> they would spell it c-u

c-u-e-w-i-n-s-y. >> do the parents in the research for your book, do they end up regretting it as well? >> i think they probably see it from when the children grow up and get older and they start coming across these hindrances. i actually know a couple personally in the book. and they're actually very successful people, lawyers, teachers. but it took a little bit of extra work on their part. >> we also found, we were just describing, there are some countries that actually, they give you a list, essentially, if you will. they say, you can only pick from these names and they will only allow you -- what countries are we talking about that only allow you to use certain names and why do they have laws like that? >> iceland, denmark, new zealand. new zealand just recently, i don't know if a lot of people read it, outlawed the name lucifer, because several parents wanted to name their child lucifer. but i think it's iceland that has a list of 7,000 names period. you can't go out of those names. they want to save the child

embarrassment. they don't want you having a noble name of a noble family. so they say it in the way of, we're protecting your child from future bullying, future harassment, future embarrassment. >> has it gotten out of hand? >> over here? >> over here in this country? >> oh, i think so. >> people focus oftentimes, celebrities name their child this or that, so on and so forth, but it's not just celebrities. a lot of parents are doing this. >> they want their child to be unique, but they're going about it the wrong way. it's to the detriment of the child. >> all right, fredricka. >> yes. >> you have your legal guys on every day at noon eastern time. can you sue your parents, can you ask them that, can you sue your parents for what they name you. >> for giving you a complicated name. >> is that what you want to go with? unique is what we want to go with. >> i'll ask them, i'm not the legal expert, they are. >> they say it can hurt you in

the workforce sometimes. >> i'll ask the question, how about that. >> well, good morning to you, fredricka. you look fabulous this morning, by the way. >> oh, that's so nice. thank you. i'll be asking lots of questions to our legal guys as well. you remember on 9/11 the steel beams that were fused together -- >> of course, of course. >> -- and brought up, well, they've also been put into a memorial. well, now there's at least one group that wants to contest this. they've filed suit in court saying it's inappropriate. our legal guys will be talking about it and where this legal challenge goes. >> have they given you any indication -- are there merits to it? >> that's one thing that will be explored, which is imposing religious beliefs on people. is this a good argument? and this privately owned museum is being put into the new jersey/new york ports authority, therein lies part of their argument. and then also, remember last year people were given kind of an assignment around the world,

cameras and a photography assignment of shooting a day in the life of -- a slice of a moment of their lives? well, now it is a movie. and it's called "life in a day." and it apparently is produced by ridley scott. it's getting rave reviews. it debuts in theaters across the world this weekend. and some people are saying, it is difficult to leave the theater. it runs for like 24 hours long. you can sit there and watch it for 24 hours long. or you can just pop in and out. some people have already said it is difficult to part from it. it's already debuted in certain european nations. >> it makes you want to sit there for 24 hours? >> yeah, you want to see how people are living and how these everyday moments are good enough to be in picture form on the silver screen. isn't that interesting? >> that was a great idea. i remember it happening at the time and wondering how it was all going to come together. but 24 hours?

>> josh lefs is going to reveal a little bit more about it. he's the one who told us about it last year. that there was this assignment that people were given. >> 24 hours in the theater? >> yeah. and then margaret cho face to face, comedienne, actress, activist. we talk about everything under the sun. we talk about her activism. and we also talk about her kind of open marriage, my word, not hers, just based on the description, sounds like open marriage. she's married to a heterosexual man but she is bisexual. we talk about that. she's very candid about that. >> i'm hearing you right. open marriage. when i hear it, i think -- am i thinking the right thing? >> probably thinking, see other people and your spouse can, too. that's what they do. and she talks about how that works. >> okay. >>'s fascinating. very interesting. >> i'll bet it is. >> the conversation is. remember tracy morgan made those offensive remarks about gays. she and he are friends.

they're colleagues. they work together on "30 rock" and how a comedian pushes the limits, how it's expected to push the limits but how you don't want to cross the line. margaret cho, beginning noon eastern time face to face. >> did she say he crossed the line? >> she said she would have handled it differently. >> i'm always curious. and you say, you've got to wait. >> you want to hear her words, not mine. >> good to see you as always, fredricka. >> i'm just the conduit. seven minutes from now, fredricka whitfield coming your way. always good to see you. getting america's financial house in order, really? >> thank god congressmen like me were here. think if the republicans hadn't taken over congress. this city would have raised the debt limit who knows how much. >> some of these guys on practicing what they preach when it comes to their finances.

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the house goes back to work to try to resolve the debt ceiling crisis that threatens to throw the u.s. into default. we'll go live to capitol hill. and when it comes to debt, some hardliners in this debate are not practicing what they preach. here now, cnn's brian todd. >> reporter: they're the fire brand class, deficit hawks in congress taking a hard line on the debt ceiling talks. some are tea party favorites like republican senator mike lee from utah. >> for decades, it's been burying our children and grandchildren under a mountain of debt. >> reporter: but according to recent disclosure forms, senator lee's racked up significant personal debt of his own, at least $65,000 worth from a credit card and a line of credit. the forms, released last month, show there are a few republicans who are demanding a hard line on cutting the nation's debt but have plenty of debt on their own. nonpartisan spending watchdog, payers for common sense. >> it raises questions about,

are you walking the walk while you're talking the talk. >> reporter: senator's lee's argument, you have to put knit context. an aide said the senator couldn't do an interview with us. but the aide said the scrutiny is, quote, crackpot. the aide says the senate has his finances in order and are paying his debts timely. joe walsh has played a prominent role in this debate. >> step back and imagine if the republicans hadn't taken over congress. this city would have raised the debt limit who knows how much. >> reporter: but walsh's ex-wife says he has more than $117,000 in child support, according to a lawsuit. we couldn't reach walsh's attorney for comment. but he told the "chicago sun times" walsh doesn't owe that amount. walsh says the attacks against him in this case are false but also says this -- >> i'm the most openly vetted candidate in the world.

i have had financial troubles and i talked about them throughout the campaign. this is where real america is. >> reporter: there's no evidence that there's any financial inappropriain -- impropriety. what's the problem? >> if that's how you choose to manage your finance, how can you tell the country we can't manage our own debt. >> reporter: the documents say tim griffin of arkansas who recently said america has a spending addiction and kevin yoder of kansas who said washington needs to cut up the credit cards each had credit card debt of at least $15,000 as of late last year. we contacted the offices of both congressmen. they didn't respond. >> i don't know what to say on that one. i don't know. everybody has their financial issues, i guess. we've all had them. >>veryone has. >> everyone has.